History

The early period

Foundation and early growth

The earliest settlement on the site of Milan was founded by the Gauls about 600 bc, and in ensuing centuries it became the capital of a Celtic tribe known as the Insubres. At the time of the Roman conquest in 222 bc, Mediolanum, as it was then called, was already one of the most powerful cities of the region known as Cisalpine Gaul (on the Roman side of the Alps). Under the emperor Augustus, it became a part of the 11th region of Italy and acquired increasing prestige and economic power until it became the second city of the Western Roman Empire, behind Rome itself. In the 3rd century ad, following the partition of the empire instituted by the emperor Diocletian, it was assigned as residence and main administrative centre for the emperor in the West. The emperor Constantine I (the Great) declared it the seat of the vicar of Italy. In the year 452 Attila the Hun devastated the city, and in 539 the Goths destroyed it.

The city, however, did not entirely perish as a result of these barbarian incursions, and by the second half of the 10th century city life was surging with renewed vigour. Under the Carolingians (the region was incorporated into the dominions of Charlemagne in 774), life in Milan showed increased vitality, particularly through the efforts of the archbishop Ansperto da Biassono, who rebuilt and strengthened the fallen walls of the city in the late 9th century. Under Ariberto da Antimiano (1018–45), the political power of the archbishopric reached its apogee. This assumption of temporal power by the archbishops, dating from about 1000, can be considered as the origin of the subsequent greatness of Milan.

In 1045, however, as a result of tensions engendered by the authority of the archbishops and because of the increasing growth and stability of the city as a whole, Milan constituted itself as a commune (comune), with permanent and autonomous governmental structures. In the resultant struggle for primacy among the cities of Lombardy, Milan became involved in a series of long battles against its less prosperous neighbours—Pavia, Cremona, Como, and Lodi. In 1111 the Milanese razed Lodi, and, after a bitter struggle lasting from 1118 to 1127, Como was destroyed.

This was the pretext for the intervention of Frederick I Barbarossa, who decided to bring Milan under the direct authority of the central imperial power of his Holy Roman Empire. The city held out until 1162, when it yielded after a nine-month siege. Its fortifications were then razed, and the destruction of the city was such that the Milanese were forced to seek refuge in the surrounding countryside. The war blazed on until 1183, the year of the Peace of Constance, although Milan—rebuilt in 1167 under the auspices of the newly founded Lombard League—succeeded in playing a major role in the defeat of the German forces of Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. Its privileges rewon, the city attained a splendid economic florescence over the next 100 years.

Feudal and dynastic conflicts

In the early years of the 12th century, the new industrial classes, in particular the guilds of the woolens and armaments workers, had increased constantly in power and influence. The feudal nature of the relationship between the archbishop of Milan and his allies meant that the archbishop had to make enormous concessions to the emergent social and political forces among the citizenry in order to reinforce his own party, diminishing thereby the financial privileges of the church.

In the early 13th century, following the worsening of their relationship with Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, the Milanese proclaimed Pagano della Torre—a member of a family emerging as a leader of the less feudal of the city’s power groupings—as their protector. The city forces were nevertheless defeated by the emperor in the Battle of Cortenuova (1237). Meanwhile, the Milanese were drawn further into the international struggle between papal sympathizers (the Guelfs) and supporters of the Holy Roman Empire (the Ghibellines). The della Torre family (or Torriani), leaders of the popular forces, took on the name of Guelf; the Visconti, another powerful Milanese family, headed the Ghibelline faction, which was backed by the aristocracy.

In the shadow of the struggle between the Torriani and the Visconti, the era of the signoria—government run by a signore, or lord—was born. In 1277 Ottone Visconti, archbishop of Milan, utterly defeated the Torriani in the Battle of Desio. His grandnephew Matteo I Visconti succeeded him, and, starting in 1311, Matteo and his heirs reigned as supreme lords of the city and of the surrounding state, replacing the political forms of the commune. In 1395 Gian Galeazzo Visconti gained the title of duke of Milan. During this time, the industrial and mercantile economy underwent rapid development, giving birth to further powerful coalitions of economic interests.

In 1450 Milan found itself besieged again. Francesco Sforza, a ruthless and ambitious general, occupied the city and founded a new dynasty, basing his claim on his marriage to an illegitimate daughter of one of the Visconti. A period of prosperity then began for Milan, based on the power of the Sforza family and the introduction of the silk industry. It was the golden period of the Italian Renaissance, typified by the splendour of the Sforza court.

Document in which Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, granted commercial rights to Giovanni Merlo and his descendants, September 7, 1452; it allowed them to buy and sell goods in Milan.The Newberry Library, Newberry Library Associates Fund, 1969

The Sforza dynasty had but a short-lived enjoyment of power. In 1499 the duchy of Milan fell into the hands of Louis XII, king of France, who was also a distant descendant of the Visconti. In 1500 Ludovico Sforza (also called Il Moro) conquered the state but was defeated at Novara in the same year. The French continued to rule until 1513, at which point they were overthrown by Massimiliano Sforza, son of Il Moro, who had Swiss assistance. However, Francis I, successor to Louis XII, reconquered Milan in his renowned victory of Marignano (now Melegnano) in 1515. In accordance with the conditions of a peace treaty signed in 1529, Milan was returned once more to the Sforza family, but in 1535 the incumbent duke died unexpectedly. Milan and the entire Milanese state then fell under the domination of the Habsburg Holy Roman emperor Charles V.

Sforza, LudovicoLudovico Sforza, detail from the Pala Sforzesca, an altarpiece by the Master of the Pala Sforzesca; in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.The Art Archive/SuperStock

Evolution of the modern city

The emperor Charles V in 1540 invested his son—the future Philip II of Spain—with the duchy of Milan. Under Spanish rule—which was to last until 1706—the political and artistic elite of Milan rapidly succumbed. The dramatic period of dynastic struggle, which was also a period of economic growth, was replaced by a long period of economic stagnation and political decline associated with unimaginative foreign rule. In 1630 the city was struck by the plague—a catastrophe later vividly portrayed by the local author Alessandro Manzoni in his historical novelI promessi sposi (The Betrothed; 1825–27). The end of the desolation of the period of Spanish domination began with the outbreak, in 1701, of the War of the Spanish Succession, following the death of Charles II of Spain. In September 1706 Prince Eugene of Savoy entered Milan as its first Austrian governor, and the city passed thus from Spanish to Austrian rule.

Although the first half of the 18th century was marked by neglect and oppression, after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), the new rulers, in collaboration with the wealthy commercial classes of Milan, were able to foster a half-century of enlightened, if despotic, growth and a flowering of Milanese culture. It is during this period that such figures as Cesare Beccaria, the outstanding criminologist and economist, and Pietro Verri, the gifted administrator and man of letters, were active. These and other members of a Milanese group known as the Società dei Pugni (Society of Fists) accepted the innovations of the theoreticians of the French Revolution, despite Austrian censorship. Neoclassical architecture also flourished.

Verri, PietroPietro Verri, statue in Milan.Giovanni Dall'Orto

When, on May 15, 1796, the republican army of France, with Napoleon Bonaparte at its head, entered Milan, it was greeted enthusiastically, particularly by the middle classes. In 1797 France created the Cisalpine Republic out of the territories it had conquered in northern Italy. This nominally independent state was reconstituted in 1801 as the Republic of Italy, which in turn ceased to exist in 1805. That year Milan became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy, under Napoleon, who was crowned Italian king in the city. During this time the city prospered from its domination of most of the Italian Peninsula.

Milan’s sense of prominence was dashed, however, by the invasion and reestablishment of Austrian authority, which followed the collapse of the Napoleonic empire in 1814 and the settlement made by the Congress of Vienna the following year. A new Austrian-controlled kingdom, that of Lombardy-Venetia, was proclaimed—though the two regions actually remained separate—and Milan lost its role as a capital.

Influenced by the new currents of Italian unity and nationalism known as the Risorgimento, and smarting under the oppressive Austrian rule, the Milanese citizenry finally rose up in the cinque giornate, the “five days” of March 18–22, 1848. In what has become one of the most celebrated episodes of the city’s history, Milan was liberated from the Austrians for several months until the rebellion was finally brought under control. In spite of the fact that by Aug. 6, 1848, the brutal occupation forces of the aging Austrian commander Joseph, Count Radetzky, were once more in firm control of Milan, resistance forces of the city decided to continue their opposition to the invaders. Young men crossed the borders of Sardinia-Piedmont to enter the city’s army. A second war with Austria finally liberated Milan from foreign control; a few days after the Battle of Magenta (June 4, 1859), the people of Milan witnessed the triumphant entry of the anti-Austrian allies—Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia-Piedmont, and French emperor Napoleon III. The city—by now in the throes of an industrial revolution emphasizing metal products—was thenceforth linked with the fate of the new, unified Italian state, maintaining itself in a position of prime importance in the national economy.

Milan was the capital of Italy’s socialist reform movement in the late 19th century, when workers managed to construct an impressive network of cooperative organizations, mutual-aid societies, trade unions, and coordinating institutions such as the city’s Chamber of Labour. Key figures behind this movement were the socialists Filippo Turati, Anna Kuliscioff, and Claudio Treves. Milan was also home to various revolutionary movements, such as those led by the nationalist Enrico Corradini and the anarchist Armando Borghi. After 1914 a reformist socialist administration ran the city under Mayor Emilio Caldara; it instituted a range of modern municipal policies that favoured the city’s large and well-organized working class, which for the most part inhabited the industrial suburbs.

Milan since 1915

World War I (1914–18) gave a huge boost to Milan’s heavy industry, but after the war Milan entered into a period of instability. Revolution threatened in 1920 as workers organized strikes and occupations in some 300 factories of the city. Yet at the same time there was strong Milanese opposition to socialism; in March 1919, the formation of militant right-wing groups in the city marked the dawn of fascism. Fascism’s rise at a national level was mirrored in Milan in August 1922, when black-shirted squads occupied the town hall and effectively ended local democracy. Fascism never won over the Milanese working classes, but it did enjoy considerable support among the city’s administrative, commercial, and business classes.

After 1943, during World War II (1939–45), the city was occupied by the Germans, and Milan became the capital of the resistance. The city was liberated by Italian partisans before the Allies arrived in April 1945. Benito Mussolini’s dead body was famously displayed in Piazzale Loreto in Milan in the same month.

As the subsequent Cold War set in, the political left remained strong, but the Christian Democrats (Partito della Democrazia Cristiana; DC) dominated local politics until the early 1960s. The strength of the left then forced the DC into a centre-left alliance. Successive administrations struggled to deal with massive social problems caused in part by an economic boom (the “economic miracle”), as thousands of immigrants arrived in the city and uncontrolled urban growth took place. In 1968 Milan was at the centre of Italy’s student movement.

In 1969 a bombing in a bank in Milan’s city centre killed more than a dozen people. This so-called Piazza Fontana massacre, at first blamed on anarchists but later determined to be the work of neofascists, hailed the beginning of a difficult period marked by acts of terrorism. The terrorism was part of a “strategy of tension” developed by neofascists who, through the creation of chaos, aimed to force the state into repressive measures against the left. The 1970s also were dominated by terrorism, as well as by economic depression.

A second economic boom arrived in the 1980s, when the city was governed by a succession of mayors from the Italian Socialist Party and under the overall control of Bettino Craxi, the Milanese prime minister of Italy. Craxi’s party was notable for its modernizing style and the way it embraced the new, postindustrial economy. However, in 1992 a massive level of institutionalized corruption was revealed as a series of Milanese magistrates, including Antonio Di Pietro, arrested numerous politicians and businessmen on charges of taking or giving bribes. Milan, with its image as the “moral capital” of Italy in tatters, became known as Tangentopoli (“Bribesville”). Within two years, the “clean hands” investigations in Milan led to the dissolution of the whole political system born out of the Cold War. The Socialists all but ceased to exist, and the DC split into many smaller parts.

The corruption scandals of the 1990s allowed the Northern League (Lega Nord), a new federalist and fiscal-reform party, to make an impact in Milan, but its main power base remained rural and provincial. More popular in the city was the new conservativepolitical party, Forza Italia (FI; loosely translatable as “Go Italy”), formed by the Milanese tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi had become wealthy through building speculation in Milan; he also had purchased the AC Milan football team in the early 1980s. His masterstroke, however, had been the creation and promotion of a series of hugely successful television and advertising companies. His Milanese base helped him to form FI, which won the national elections in 1994. Berlusconi served as prime minister of Italy for less than a year before a corruption investigation and political disputes led to his resignation. Nevertheless, he was reelected to the post in 2001 and 2008, the latter time at the helm of a new centre-right party, the People of Freedom (Popolo della Libertà).

Milan entered the 21st century with a dynamic economy that had transformed itself into a postindustrial powerhouse, thanks to the city’s central market location, a capable commercial and financial class, and the relatively cheap labour of hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Many areas within the city were redeveloped and revitalized, and Milan could justly claim to be a world capital of fashion, design, finance, business services, and media and publishing.